Having a horse is a huge, life-long commitment. Whatever your horse’s purpose, how they perform depends on how healthy they are, our team of vets have the experience and knowledge to ensure your horse receives top-quality care, so that they can perform at their best.

Health Checks and Vaccinations

You may check your horse every day for any injuries or symptoms of illness already, but a thorough check by the experts is crucial for preventative care. Many subtle early signs of illness can often be missed, which can lead to a bigger, more costly problem further down the line.

We recommend scheduling a full health check for your horse once a year. In this appointment, our vets will examine them for any signs of arthritis, sarcoids, hoof imbalance, listen to the heart and lungs, check for dental problems, as well as carrying out a thorough check of both their external and internal condition and administering any necessary vaccinations.

We are more than happy to come and visit your horse for this examination, and if your horse is in a yard, you can group together with other horse-owners for a more cost-friendly yard-wide health check.

X-Rays of your horse at your yard

Imaging is an extremely important aspect of lameness and wound investigations. With a state-of-the-art, mobile x-ray machine, we are able to provide patient-side images. These images are of far superior quality to previous systems and allows for much more detailed assessment of any bone issues. Images are stored both on the machine and on our online database, allowing easy comparison of previous x-rays and forwarding of images to specialists for second opinions.

Equine Dentals

Dental care for horses can often be neglected, which can lead to extreme pain and discomfort. Just like you, your horse should have their teeth examined by experts every six to twelve months.  Badly maintained teeth can lead to malnutrition, weight loss, chronic colic, ulcers in the mouth, a swollen tongue, gum disease and even an inability to eat altogether. Your horse’s mouth will be checked for any swelling or signs of problems and then sedated before a full dental examination is carried out. As with health check appointments, we are able to visit you at your yard to carry out this assessment.

Pregnancy Ultrasound Scanning

At Old Stone Vets we have the ultrasound machines available here to accurately diagnose pregnancy at 18 days plus. This can be done at your yard or at the surgery. Please ring for further details.

Vetting

When you buy a new horse, you want to know that it is fit for the purpose you intend before you build up an emotional attachment to it. Vetting is the way to do this. This involves a thorough examination of the horse you intend to buy, to make sure that it is in good health and meets the conditions of the sale. Think of it as an MOT, but for your horse rather than your car!

Here at Old Stone Vets, you can choose to have your examination include up to five stages, with the fifth being the most in-depth. It is always recommended that you get your horse checked as thoroughly as possible, so that you are aware of any costly problems that could arise in the future. We would also recommend blood sampling of the horse at the time of vetting, so that this sample can be stored in case of any future disputes as to whether the horse had received painkillers before vetting. Additionally, you should always brief us as to what you intend to use your horse for, so we can check that it will be suitable for that purpose. The more we know about what you’d like to do with the horse, the better we’ll be able to advise you.

In some cases it may be worth the expense of further tests, such as x-rays or endoscopy to be as confident as possible that your potential purchase is as healthy as possible.